Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an insufflation system, and especially relates to an insufflation system that supplies a predetermined gas (for example, carbon dioxide gas) into the body cavity of a subject.
Description of the Related Art
When inspection or treatment is performed using an endoscope, gas is supplied from an air supply conduit line installed in the endoscope into a body cavity in order to secure the visual field of the endoscope and the operation area of a treatment tool. Air is mainly used in the related art as the gas supplied into the body cavity, but a carbon dioxide gas (CO2 gas) is used in recent years. Since the carbon dioxide gas has excellent bio absorbability, damage given to a subject is less. Therefore, the carbon dioxide gas tends to be used as a gas delivery source.
In a case where the carbon dioxide gas is supplied into a body cavity, a gas supply apparatus to which a gas cylinder filled with the carbon dioxide gas is attached is used. The gas supply apparatus is detachably connected with an air supply conduit line of an endoscope, and a carbon dioxide gas from a carbon dioxide gas cylinder is decompressed and supplied.
For example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2006-014961 (PTL 1) describes an insufflation system that can manually supply a carbon dioxide gas into a body cavity according to operator's operation. In this insufflation system, while there is a merit that it is possible to freely adjust the amount of air supplied into a body cavity according to operator's intention in order to secure the visual field of an endoscope and the operation area of a treatment tool, there is a problem that frequent operation by the operator is required to keep pressure in the body cavity constant and therefore an operation load applied to the operator becomes large.
By contrast with this, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2006-130077 (PTL 2) describes an insufflation system that can automatically supply a carbon dioxide gas into a body cavity such that a predetermined pressure is kept in the body cavity. According to this insufflation system, it is possible to stably control pressure in the body cavity in a desired state without operator's complicated operation, and it is possible to reduce an operation load applied to the operator.